Two years after dad, son dies the same way

Dec 11, 2012, 01.46AM ISTTNN[ Manish Raj & Sindhu Kannan ]

Two years ago, Arputham lost her husband to a tragic road accident. He was on the footboard of a bus which brushed against another vehicle, crushing him to death. On Wednesday, tragedy revisited Arputham with a sense of repetition, as her 17-year-old son travelling on the footboard of an MTC bus was killed by a reversing lorry on OMR.

Vijayan, a bright Class 12 student of Santhome Higher Secondary School was among the four students killed in the accident. Waiting for her son's body at the Government Royapettah Hospital, Arputham kept looking at the sky, her face drenched in tears as if to find where lay the cause of the twin tragedies.

Equally dazed was Jayanti, an aunt of Balamurugan, a senior secondary student who died in the accident. While most of the people stood in the shadows to escape the afternoon sun, she stood in the hot sun, numbed by the news of her nephew's death. Balamurugan's Kalai Selvi sister stood by her, sobbing. "My brother had an exam today ..." she said, her voice trailing off. Her mother sat on the floor, shocked and refusing to believe her son was dead. Every time the ambulance brought one of the corpses into the mortuary, she would try to run after it.

Vijayan's uncle Periasamy said it was the bus driver who was responsible for the accident. But that was little comfort for the mourning relatives. Gopi, Vijayan's cousin rued that because of the absence of proper MTC buses, schoolchildren had to commute in overcrowded buses. On his palm was the number of the bus he had jotted down: TN 01 N 8250. "The commuters were shouting at the driver to slow down as they saw the lorry near, but he did not hear them," he said.

Vijayan's friend Aravind said Vijayan was a good student who scored 89% marks last year. "This morning he was due to appear for his model practical exam," he said. The death of Manoj Kumar, their second son has completely shattered Chithra and her husband Raj Kumar. She kept touching the bicycle at her house in Sempon Nagar, left behind by her son Manoj. The cycle bore his signature all over.

"He was fond of decorating the cycle," the mother sobbed. "He used to go on his bicycle till Kandanchavady and take a bus to the Central Polytechnic College where he was doing EEE. Since his vehicle was punctured, he took mine today," said his brother Sibi. Raj Kumar was in a state of shock and barely uttered a word.

Though young, Manoj Kumar's brother Sibi and his elder brother Ranjith remained strong. We call him Mano. "He was very dear to me, not because he was my brother, but because he was sweet and simple," said the youngest one.